VISD receives $1.4M grant for hurricane recovery

Oct. 06--The Victoria school district has received a $1.4 million grant for its displaced students after Hurricane Harvey.

"Any kind of grants that we can receive from the impact from Hurricane Harvey is a good thing for the district," Superintendent Quintin Shepherd said Friday.

The grant from the Texas Education Agency's Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students will cover any expenses or resources that were used during the 2017-18 school year to help students who were displaced, said Shawna Currie, district communications director. Those expenses include school supplies, necessities, clothing and additional resources.

Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced in August that the Texas Education Agency received more than $174 million in new federal assistance under the Temporary Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students program, according to the agency.

Earlier this year, the TEA provided the U.S. Department of Education with information submitted by school districts and charters regarding displaced students. VISD was one of more than 300 school districts and charters that were eligible to receive some portion of the federal funding.

"This is not money we spent but money we are able to bring in and help to cover the costs while we are still waiting for reimbursements from FEMA and insurance," Currie said. Instead of being spent on building damage, "that grant goes more into the classrooms and the services we were providing for our students and our staff members."

With the incoming grant, the district will be about 98 percent recovered from Hurricane Harvey. However, district officials said that percentage is ever-changing.

"We are looking at this as the total funds that are coming in to get us back to whole," Shepherd said. "We are going to continue having expenses that are forthcoming as part of the recovery, so that is going to continue to be a moving target, so you may see that (percentage) drop a little bit now as we take on some more recovery efforts."

Kitchen equipment and refrigeration is an example of a recently added expense, he said. Shepherd said this is why the district chose to use percentages rather than dollar amounts when describing their recovery.

The district will not go over its target amount of 100 percent recovery, he said.

"As we get close to fully recovered, that's when we take on more projects," he said.

District officials are currently working through claim disputes with insurance, which is the most pressing concern for the district, Shepherd said.

The district has calculated $6.4 million in damages from the hurricane as of Thursday. Additionally, the district has received about $3.5 million in reimbursement from insurance and about $1.4 million in reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The 11-cent tax increase adopted for one year by the district's Board of Trustees was still necessary, Shepherd said.

"It was important because we didn't know this was going to be our outcome ... I think the taxpayers would have seen it as irresponsible had we not assessed that tax increase, especially had these funds not come through in the timely manner that they have," he said. "We would be in an entirely different situation as a district."

Gabriella Canales reports on education for the Victoria Advocate. She may be reached at [email protected] or 361-580-6578.